It was blue, always blue. The light hit her face like rain washing all her thoughts away but she fought it trying to keep from falling under and going back to sleep. There was a sound from near by and the thought that kept her going was finding out what is was. "Hello." She said after trying three times to say the word outside of her own head.

Chief Thigpen looked out her window and frowned. The monster attacks were ramping up and each one they beat revealed a human inside. Someone was running some nasty experiments in her city and she wasn't happy. She sat down von Trapp was on his way and hopefully the lead was good and they could finally start tracking whoever was doing this down.

The tap of a cane set the beat for the small jingle that was the muffled clinking of various parts preceding Johnathon's arrival. He wandered through the door muttering about spring tension and steam pressure. He stops for a moment, suddenly realizing he is not in his lab, but the Chief's office. "This isn't my lab," he says looking around "Hi Chief, hey quick question, have you seen my goggles?"

"Scanner...yes!" He suddenly exclaimed, "I just got it operational earlier today. I have it right..." He began searching through his pockets taking a moment to transfer his goggles to their customary position on his hat. "they're here somewhere," after searching his pouches, Johnathan was about to upturn them one by one onto a table when he felt a bulge in his back pocket. "here it is, " he held out a small brass object.

"All right Smithton I know we normally try and keep you in the labs but with the iron gate fiasco I am low on men so you will have to go in the field. I am assigng you to one of my more experienced squad leaders so you will be in good hands.`

"Excellent it will give me a chance to field test my two latest," he exclaimed "its a potable steam generator and a gun that fires metal spikes at high vilocity using magnets." Suddenly he remembered where he was "I mean... Sir!" Jonathon saluted with enough force to knock his hat off he head.

"I like your enthusiasm Smithton but I am hoping this can go off without a gunfight. There is a warehouse down near the west docks that has been pulling three times more power than it should. It may be just another case of people living in a non-residential zone but the fact people have spotted vans coming in and out at all hours and there have been monster sightings as well."

The curtains that hung across the magic lantern screen across the room stirred as if by a brisk breeze, and then suddenly, in quick succession, there stood Fetch the reconnaissance expert, or at least a figure all in various shades of black and sporting a shortsword strapped to its back seemed to be doing so; one's eyes tended to just slide off of the presence there, as if they couldn't quite get a purchase on the visual -- and just as sudden;y, the 'thopter pilot and sniper "Trapper Jack" von Trapp sat at the table, and was just setting his blaster, in its belt rig on the table, propping the exciter rifle against said table in the same place. "Pardon the entrance," he said with a roguish smirk. "Mr. Fetch there seems to have a talent for such."

Fetch stepped closer to von Trapp and whispered the proceedings that preceded the pilot's arrival.

"I see," Trapper whispered back. "Good --er, you might want to be a bit more "here," if you get what I mean, the others keep squinting in this direction," Trapper said discreetly.

Fetch seemed to clench himself somewhat, and then it was obvious that he was in fact a male with Oriental features, though that was obscured slightly by the scarf that still hovered in the vicinity of his lower face. "My apologies, Chief Thigpen," he said with a bow.

"The other rookies'll be along in a few," Trapper added aloud, "they're dealin' with that new 'thopter pad guard--"Ah, here the twins be now."

Two youthful Justices stumbled in, obviously twin brothers by the way that their straw-brown hair matched perfectly and that both had almost the exact same facial features (what young girls might have called "dreamy") and physical build, though their individual miens were as different as night and day. One was cocksure and suave, and the other was more introverted, almost shy. Will and Paul, the Probert twins. Will, the cocky one, tended toward bravado and physical prowess, and was a dab hand with any firearm, while Paul was about equally proficient with weapons but tended more toward a preference for blades, Ledgerdemain and sleight-of hand; he was a thinker by all accounts, and his schemes, while almost always successful, tended to be a bit insane, or approached a problem from an odd angle. "Guard thought we was too young t' be Justice--" Will blurted before Trapper spoke up.

"S'down and listen up, you two," Trapper said sternly, but not unkindly. The pair had a tendency to get into mischief if not kept in their place. Their heads and hearts were in the right place, though.

Johnathon returned from fetching his errant hat, except now he was wearing his sidearm and sword with a rather large contraption on his back. It looked like a large tank with gears sticking out of it and an odd rifle fitted into a specialized holder with a cable running to the tank. "oh hello," he said noticing trapper "and hello, hello, and...hello. "this place suddenly got busy. What'd I miss?"

"Meet the rest of your team Smithton." Agnes smiled they might be a rag tag bunch but they were the best she had. She turned down the lights and fired up the lantern. "Lets get down to business. The warehouse is owned by Blockhouse industries, and not a dammed person we can find actually knows what happens there. This is the floor plan." The picture popped up on screen. "As you can see it is fairly standard with five bays and an office but we looked back in the public records and it used by the Le Croix family as a smuggling operation. There could be up to four sub levels with two of them being under water so be careful and try not to take out any walls. I have tried to send in a drone to see what they are up to but is no good that thing is shielded better than most banks. Take heavy armour unit seven Jessica is preparing it in the hanger. Remember there may be hostages so be extra careful and bring as many in for questioning as you can. I want to get to the bottom of this." She was unsure of what would happen but the name Le Croix was bad news from the past. Their war with the Malone's had nearly distroyed the city and brought about the first justice team. For it to pop up now after so long was a bad sign.

For a moment Johnathon stood there staring at the pressure gauge on his cane, before adjusting a few knobs on his pack. He drew the rifle and opened the loading mechanism within he placed a six inch spike of metal, when he closed the loading mechanism a barely perceptible whine built up until it could no longer be heard. "J. W. Smithson, tech extraordinaire at you're service." He gave a slight bow, before he suddenly started digging around in his pouches muttering under his breath about wavelengths and increased kill-to-bullet ratios.

Trapper nodded greeting to Smithson, then heard the exciter rifle give out an odd little ticking sound. He checked the Gauss and Relative Field gauges, and adjusted the knobs for Gain and Static Potential; apparently Smithton's device was harmonically affecting his own.

He watched the slides on the screen, and then stiffened when he heard the name 'Delacroix.' His old Master's nemesis -- hell, everybody's bloody nemeses, the way they saw and did everything.

"That's a name to raise a red flag," he said aloud, a bit sourly. "Right, no heavy high explosive projectiles below forty feet." Trapper looked at the professorial-looking fellow. "Mr. Smithson, exactly how powerful is that thing?" It seemed the spike launcher worked on similar principles to the exciter carbine. "My exciter can be adjusted to splash off of anything not within the targeted range. Does your device have a similar safety feature?"

Agnes mirrored Trapper's sour look. "Now you know why I have you on this." As much as the city romanized it's wild past those that had seen it or heard first hand stories never wanted it back. "You will have made her day. It isn't often that Jessica gets to drive her babies." The chief flipped on the squawk box on her desk and told the mechanic the news and there was a rather loud wahooo in reply.

"I'm not really sure, I developed it a while back as a defense turret," Johnathon said as he dismantled the rifles scope with a small screwdriver. "although I imagine that if I get the energy levels right this baby will punch through most things."

Can you set it so it 'll punch through, say, an armored guard but not the eall directly behind him?" Trapper asked. "Below forty feet in the basement o'thatxtation, it'll be great to have another sharpshooter 'sides me, but you shoot a hole in the outer wall and we're all done for."

Trapper smiled when he heard Jessica's cry of jubilation."She sure sounds happy," he said impishly.

The cheif had to smile too. "That girl would happly take those tanks to the ends of the earth. Try to hit the wearhouse around dusk most of the looky lous will be in the bars by then so you will have more space to work."

Jonathon paused briefly, Trapper's words echoing through his mind before he threw the pieces of the scope in a pouch before he bolted from the room muttering an excuse about his lab and spring loaded flanges.

A few moments later he returned with a lumpy roll of canvas that looked like a oversized tool kit. He laid it down on the table and unrolled it. It contained hundreds of the little metal spikes similar (yet not the same) to the one he originally loaded. He contemplated them for a second before selecting one that was slightly thicker at the base. He tapped the base against the table , careful to hold it further up as the base opened up to create four 'hooks' that locked into place. "Hopefully this will do what we need. These shouldn't impede movement down the barrel considering they don't full extend until leaving, I just don't know how much drag it'll create." He said as he tried to close the bolt back up.

"That kind of looks like a rocket grapnel's warhead," Wiil said suddenly right behind the professors elbow. "D'you think tbat thing could throw a line like that?" Will was like that, always getting up into peoples faces and business withiut really intending to.

Paul did a facepalm at his brother's antics but nonetheless chimed in, perhaps in an attempt to grab some blame and take some of the heat off of his brother, "might be good money in that, imagine what it could do for the ranching trade--"

"If you two are through distracting the professor, maybe you could find a spare moment to go down to the Mech Pool and help Miss Jessica get the tank ready," von Trapp said tartly. "Yessir!" Will said enthusiastically, drsgiing his brother along behind.

"Hey!" Paul protested, struggling in his brother's grip as they exited the room. "Whats got you all fired up?"

Jessica was currently humming to herself and polishing no 7 to a bright shine. It had been months since she had gotten any time out of the base. Fixing things was fun but piloting them well that was the best. It took her a while to notice that there were other people in the room. "Oh hello do you need something fixed? I have a mission but I can take a look at it real soon."

My, my, what a fine lookin' woman, Will thought to himself, taking a few moments to gaze upon the wondrous, though slightly smudged, sight that was Jessica the mechanic. He started at the sound of her voice, and shook himself back to the issue at hand.I'm here to help you prep the bre-- the tank, Miss," Will said, striding over, and grabbed ahold of the ladder, taking the opportunity to get up close. "Wouldn't want you to slip, now would we..."

Paul rolled his eyes. "We're here to help, Miss Jessica. von Trapp sent us down." He picked up a rag and popped his brother's thigh with it in playful reprimand. Will Yelped as Paul said, "Should we polish, load ammo, or something else?"

"Oooh I am headed out with von Trapp? The boys told me all sorts of things about him." She grinned and bounced down the ladder coming dangerously close to Will. "Could you help me check the pressure in the grip claws. There are a set of gauges behind the wrist sheild." She was talking a mile a minate. "So are we going to beat up some gangsters?" Jessica was hopeing she would get to be a hero this time as aposed to being used as a heavy hauler.

Jonathon walks into the room and sees the tank."You're worried about me punching a hole in the wall, as your bringing a tank?" He said with mock offense, before anyone had a chance to respond to his presence he was racing around the tank exclaiming excitedly about the various advanced in technology that made certain functions possible."This is got to be the most beautiful machine I have seen," he finally said a bit more subdued, "with the possible exception of my beauty here." He patted a loving hand on his rifles set-up.

"Now mister be nice to no 7 here. He might be big but he can peal a banana with out bruising it provided you have the right person in the pilots seat." Her grin said exactly who was the right person. Jessica beamed at the praise. "He is one of a kind all right. Based off one of the automatons I built to to haul wood to school." She did not mention that it had made a rather large hole in the wall of the school.

"Yes ma'am, meant no offense, " Jonathon said with a polite now, "the name is Johnathon W. Smithson, at your service, although I have a feeling you won't be needing my advice on things mechanical." He reached into his leather satchel and removed from it one of the two leather bound journals contained. "Young master" Johnathon leaned over towards Will," I was giving some thought to you're idea you asked about earlier, and I think I might have an idea." He began to sketch out a new bolt idea with the spring set to open the bolt like a claw with an eyelet to attach a rope to.

Paul was eyeing the automaton tank as well, gauging its size versus that of the ornithopter. "I heard you had a hand in the Thunderwasp squad ornithopter design as well, he said. "von Trapp plans to haul No. 7 here with his. No offense, but this fella seems like kind've a heavy load."-----With the others gone ahead (except for Fetch; he had been assigned to von Trapp personally, and seemed to consider it his duty to stick close by unless specifically ordered to do otherwise by von Trapp, and only by von Trapp. If only I could figure out just where he's keeping himself out of the way, Trapper thought. Ah, of course, the curtains.

He turned his attention to the Chief. "Any idea what's really inside that station?" he asked. "Monsters, sure, but that can't be all. They'd need something to put the humans inside, and a place to keep the humans, as well as a kennel for the monsters. Not to mention support for all of that, meaning there's potentially a hell of a big operation in there." He perused the map on the table. "Drawbridge; and a short-arsed shelf behind it. That means we need to cut the lines that raise and lower it for the tank to be able to cross at speed and smash in, unless it can punch a door down. Ariadne can do the job, but I don't think both'll fit on the shelf. That means setting the tank down and circling back around to cut the lines. Right. Mind if I take this?" he asked, fingers already curling the edge as if to roll it up.